Racist Scientist Apologizes for Derogatory Remarks

October 19, 2007

Famed Scientist Apologizes for Quoted Racial Remarks

By CORNELIA DEAN
James D. Watson, who shared the 1962 Nobel prize for deciphering the double-helix of DNA, apologized “unreservedly” today for comments reported this week suggesting that black people, over all, are not as intelligent as whites.

In an interview published Sunday in The Times of London, Dr. Watson is quoted as saying that while “there are many people of color who are very talented,” he is “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa.”

“All our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.

“I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said,” Dr. Watson said in a statement given to The Associated Press. “There is no scientific basis for such a belief.”

But his publicist, Kate Farquhar-Thomson, would not say whether Dr. Watson believed he had been misquoted. “You have the statement,” she said. “That’s it, I am afraid.”
Dr. Watson is in England to promote his new book, “Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science” (Knopf). In a statement, Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for Knopf, said only that it was “understandable that his comments have caused upset throughout the world.

Bruce Stillman, president of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research institution where Dr. Watson served as director and president, where he is now chancellor, and where the school of biological sciences is named for him, issued a statement saying the laboratory’s trustees, administration and faculty “vehemently disagree” with the sentiments attributed to Dr. Watson. He said they would be “bewildered and saddened if he indeed made such comments.”

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor study plant and animal genetics, cancer and other diseases. Dr. Stillman said they do not “engage in any research that could even form the basis of the statements attributed to Dr. Watson.”

There is wide agreement among researchers on intelligence that genetic inheritance influences mental acuity, but there is also wide agreement that life experiences, even in the womb, exert a powerful influence on brain structure. Further, there is wide disagreement about what intelligence consists of and how — or even if — it can be measured in the abstract.

For example, in his book “The Mismeasure of Man,” the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould dismissed “the I.Q. industry” as little more than an effort by men of European descent to maintain their prominence in the world.

Nevertheless, Dr. Watson, 79, is hardly the first eminent researcher to assert that inherited characteristics like skin color are somehow correlated to intelligence and that people of African descent fall short. For example, William Shockley, a Nobel laureate for his work with transistors, in later life developed ideas of eugenics based on the supposed intellectual inferiority of blacks.

His ideas were greeted with scorn, and Dr. Watson is encountering a similar reaction. According to the BBC, the Science Museum of London canceled a speech Dr. Watson was to have given there on Friday, saying that much as it supports robust discussion of controversial ideas, Dr. Watson’s assertions on race and intelligence are “beyond the point of acceptable debate.”

Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American Scientists, a private group that works to bring science to policy-making, said it was “tragic that one of the icons of modern science has cast such dishonor on the profession,” particularly at a time when some in politics are attempting to discredit or distort the scientific enterprise.
He said the idea that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites was “racist, vicious and unsupported by science.”

Comments

Posted by someone who's never read the research on intelligence. Start with "The Bell Curve."
 
Watson has made remarks that have upset people before. And when he does, the press, just like in the current example, is all over him, quoting ONLY people who disagree with his UN-PC statements. Nobody who supports his view is quoted, making it appear that he is alone or a ranting crank. But as the other poster mentioned, check out "The Bell Curve". And there are many others that make similar points in agreement with Watson.

But is what Watson says true? What does reality show us? Walk into any lab or check the roster of physicists or other PhD scientists throughout the US and Canada. Do we see a proportunate mix of people in high-intelligence work by race/ethnicity? No, we do not. Lots of Asians. Quite a few whites, disproportunately Jewish ones. Not many blacks at all.

In many fields it is disproportunate. Are only 13% of musicians black? Are only 5% of doctors Jewish? Are only 2% of Ivy League students Asian? Nope, nope and nope again. Watch Jeopardy and look for the blacks. Why aren't they there? Two answers, take your choice: A. racism! They're being kept out by whitey!! or B. Not a huge supply who can make it on to the show. If the truth of the second choice is too difficult to swallow, then go with the first. Many do.
 
There is a third choice, maybe Jeopardy is giving a valid cross section of their viewers demographics. In other words, maybe the show isn't popular with the majority of African Americans. Now I don't know if this is the case or not, just putting out another possibility.
 
I don't know just how much of this is media magnification. My brother is a scientific type and often they speak very literally and (no shock) scientifically. Like BayAreaGuy said, look at the Bell Curve. Africa probably does test low depending on the testing because of tribal cultures still being prevalent in some regions there. If testing is based on our modernized life, you would be hard pressed to find a Bush man who would test well.

The thing we have to remember is that, scientifically proven, Africa is the cradle of life. As such there are so many links to our past and early lives as homosapiens. There is a lot of Africa and African culture that is still untouched by a lot of our modern culture. To me, that doesn't make them stupid, it makes them awe inspiring. A bush man can survive in the deep savannah on his skills, could you? I know I couldn't without a bus load of crap from G.I. Joe's and Brookstone.

So do I think the man is a racist? At least not because of this incident, other than this, I can't say. I just think he is a very literal scientist who has fallen victim to an overzealous press machine on a day they didn't have Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears to bash one.
 

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